Matthew 20:9 “And when those came who were hired about the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius.

At this point in the story people started getting mad because the 11th hour people got a full day’s wages. But I had never noticed that while the others got paid for a day’s working, these 11th hour folks got paid for a day’s waiting. They were in the marketplace. They were prepared to work. They were positioned and available. Yet if nobody hired them, what else could they do? Many may have been tempted to go home at some point, assuming that the lateness of the hour would preclude the possibility of being hired. But these laborers stayed there. Waiting. All day. You can’t tell me that they didn’t struggle with discouragement. But they must have believed that there was yet some hope, because they stayed.

If you feel useless to the Lord, not employed in His service, with no kingdom assignment and yet you are prepared, willing, waiting and hoping for His summons to the vineyard, you are earning your full wage in the waiting. That is His current assignment for you and your faithfulness in that assignment will be rewarded just as fully as those who are currently assigned to the front lines of ministry.